Lewis Defeats Foran in Special Election

Gwendolyn Hubbard Lewis is Alexandria’s newest School Board member. Lewis defeated Kenneth L. Foran in a special election that was held in a reconfigured School Board District C on March 19.

The city has not received official pre-clearance from the U. S. Department of Justice but, city officials said that they had been told that approval had been granted and that written notification would be given shortly.

Lewis won by a margin of nearly two to one in an election in which only 438 voters, or 1.7 percent of the total registered voters, cast ballots. Lewis received 285 votes while Foran got 149.

There were seven precincts in District C. Lewis won in all of the precincts—

* James K. Polk: Lewis 79, Foran, 70;

* Patrick Henry: Lewis, 29, Foran, 12;

* Beatley Library: Lewis, 29, Foran, 17;

* Tucker: Lewis, 59, Foran, 9;

* John Adams: Lewis, 18, Foran, 16;

* William Ramsay: Lewis, 27, Foran, 3;

* Southport Apartments: Lewis, 24, Foran, 21.

“The low turnout was not unexpected,” said Tom Parkins, Registrar of Voters. “We see this frequently in special elections.” Parkins said that everything [voting procedures] went well.

Lewis is looking forward to being a member of the city’s School Board. She attended public school in Alexandria, graduating from George Washington High School in 1967.

“I am looking forward to making the school system in Alexandria even better than it is today for all of the city’s children,” she said in an earlier interview.